"Six Days on the Road" is an American song written by Earl Green and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio songwriter Carl Montgomery, made famous originally by country music singer Dave Dudley. First released in 1963, the song became a major hit that year and is often hailed as the definitive celebration of the American truck driver.[1][2]

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According to country music historian Bill Malone, "Six Days on the Road" was not the first truck driving song; Malone credits "Truck Driver's Blues" by Cliff Bruner, released in 1940, with that distinction. "Nor is it necessarily the best," said Malone, citing songs such as "Truck Drivin' Man" by Terry Fell and "White Line Fever" by Merle Haggard and the Strangers as songs that "would certainly rival it".[3]

Dudley "strikingly captures the sense of boredom, danger and swaggering masculinity that often accompanies long-distance truck driving. His macho interpretation, with its rock-and-roll overtones, is perfect for the song."[5]

Allmusic writer Bill Dahl, called "Six Days" the "ultimate overworked rig driver's lament;"[6] indeed, the song's lyrics bemoan highway patrolmen, scale weigh-ins and loneliness for the narrator's girlfriend, and speak of using "little white pills" to keep him awake. Like Malone, Dahl also cited Dudley's voice as perfect for the song, as "his bottomless pipes were certainly the ultimate vehicle for its delivery, reeking of too much turgid coffee and too many non-filtered cigarettes."[7]

Released in mid-May 1963, "Six Days on the Road" became Dudley's first major hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart that summer. The record spent 21 weeks on this chart, and it also became a minor hit on Top 40 radio stations, peaking at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also listed at number 13 on their easy listening survey.

Many truck-driving themed hits followed for Dudley, including "Last Day in the Mines," "Truck Drivin' Son-of-a-Gun" and "Truck Driver's Prayer."

Sawyer Brown covered the song on their 1997 album Six Days on the Road. Their version peaked at No. 13 on the country charts that year. They changed the line "I'm taking little white pills" to "I'm passing little white lines", thus omitting the drug reference.

Many cover versions of "Six Days on the Road" have been recorded, with three of them also being chart hits for other artists. Johnny Rivers took a cover to No. 58 on the country charts and No. 105 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. Steve Earle recorded the song for the 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and his version reached No. 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in early 1988.